


Snappy and Less Conspicuous

by Sqweezle



Series: Snappy and Less Conspicuous [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Coming Out, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-War, SO MUCH FLUFF, cotton candy rot your teeth fluff, dialogue only, discussions about sexuality, gay!harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25674544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sqweezle/pseuds/Sqweezle
Summary: Harry and Ginny find their place in each other’s hearts post war and their relationship  what they thought it would be.In other words: a conversation style piece about coming out and filling in the knowledge gaps of Harry Potter’s one-track childhood.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley
Series: Snappy and Less Conspicuous [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861762
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Snappy and Less Conspicuous

**Author's Note:**

> As usual - I have no Beta and I edit everything myself. I do not own Harry Potter, it’s characters, or this universe. 
> 
> Quick note: In this Fic, Harry and Ginny discuss some basic psychology terms and some basic ways of viewing sexuality. I realise these aren’t the end all be all guide stones to the human condition but when I was just out of high school I dated a college boy that introduced me to a lot of concepts that I just hadn’t thought of before. I tried to give this experience to Harry. If my psych analysis doesn’t seem accurate or if the information seems incomplete/incorrect it’s because I was trying to write it from the perspective of a wizard recalling Muggle psychology he learned through pillow talk and a few library dates. Please don’t come for me! Otherwise, enjoy.

** Bold = Harry **

_ italic = Ginny _

** Hey Ginny. Can I talk to you? **

_ Sure Harry. _

**Gin. Uh.**

...

...

_Harry?_

** I’m uh. **

_ Are you okay? You look sort of pale. _

...

_ You’re shaking Harry. You killed Voldemort four days ago. But talking to me scares you this much?  _

** I don’t...  **

_ Harry look at me. Take my hand. It’s okay. Whatever you’re about to say, I’m going to keep loving you. I’m your friend first Harry okay? _

** Ginny I’m gay. **

_ Oh thank Merlin. Okay. _

**Thank...? You’re not mad?**

_N_ o. _I’m really not. I’m feeling things, mind you. Relief because it’s just a personal thing and not an end of the world thing. A little sad that you were so nervous to talk to me. I’m kind of curious why it took you this long to realize it..._

** It just sort of hit me all at once yesterday. **

_ At Fred’s funeral? _

** No. God no. Gin. No. Afterwards. We went to that bar and I kept looking at... **

_ Harry? _

** *ahem* Right. I kept looking at a man by the bar and it just sort of hit me. I kept thinking ‘He’s fit. I bet he plays Quidditch. I wonder if I should ask him about that. Why would I do that? Why would I talk to him at all? So he’ll look at me and talk to me and maybe...’ and that’s about as far as my thoughts went before everything sort of... clicked into place? **

_ Oh! Was that why you went for your walk about town? _

**Yeah. I needed some space. I love you Ginny. I’m even attracted to you. I’ve always thought girls were pretty. But I don’t look at women and just wanna shove em up against a wall and snog the daylights out of em. I guess I didn’t...**

_Harry! Harry. It’s okay. I get it._

**Well don’t laugh at me Gin**.

_ I’m sorry. I’m not trying to laugh at you Harry. I’m just thinking. I’m just trying to get my head around this. You were living in a dorm full of boys for ages. I know I’ve seen my fair share of my dorm mates in the altogether. Surely you’ve seen a mans... _

** Ah. Right. I did.... **

_ And did your body react to that or...? _

** Jeez Gin. You really cut right to it don’t you? **

_ Well what’s the point in faffing about? _

** I guess. And yeah. I reacted but I thought it was normal. I haven’t exactly had anyone to tell me what was normal. **

_ Oh right... _

** Ginny. Please don’t stare at me like that. **

_No no. Sorry I was thinking about something._

** Care to share? **

_ Well how’d you like to go on holiday? _

** What do you mean? I mean the timing isn’t great. And everyone will think we’re back together. I assumed you would want to tell people that part at least and... **

_ Oh stop worrying. And stop pacing. Just sit down for heavens sake. _

_... _

_Okay. Stop biting your nails! You’re making me nervous just being near you. Lay down here with me. Just relax al right._

**Alright. This... is helping. Weird.**

_Eh. It helps me sometimes. Sometimes you just have to lay in the floor ya know? Anyways. You gotta figure this out. Ron is useless at sex ed. None of my older brothers are all that helpful about this actually. My parents would be absolute horrors about it. I can only imaging that Sirius and Lupin would have been helpful._

...

_ Sorry. I don’t mean to take the conversation there, I’m only saying... I don’t know what I’m saying exactly I’m sort of just thinking out loud. Anyways. Hermione would probably give you a hundred books and assign you three feet on Signs of Homosexuality. And it’s not like you can just casually go out and flirt and figure the mechanics of it all.  _

** Mechanics? I mean I think I get the gist actually... **

_ Right but how do you suppose you’ll take a wack at kissing a wizard without it being on the front page of the Profit hm? _

**Oh gods I didn’t think about that.**

_So. What if we went on holiday? You and me. We can go somewhere small and far away. No wait... we could go to the States_.

** What are you on about? **

_ No this is good. We can go to the States and you can figure out how to be gay and I can get away from all these brothers of mine for a bit. We can even do a little bit of Hermione-style research in some library far away where no one will know us. _

...

** Would you really do that, Ginny? **

_ I mean, I don’t want to be gone forever. I want to help with reconstruction and be around to help my mum. So let’s say three weeks. You and me. We’ll go for three weeks. _

** The United States is a big place Gin. Where should we go? **

_ I’ve always wanted to see New York. It’s quite crowded so it would be easy to avoid the American press.  _

** You know what? Okay. Yeah. Three weeks isn’t long. Yeah. Let’s do it. How will we get there? When do we leave? **

_ We’ll talk to everyone about it tonight. Ron and Hermione are going to Australia anyways. They’re trip isn’t the same of course but I think everyone will get it. _

** Everyone will still assume we’re together Gin...  **

_ Oh don’t look so sad. It’s okay. Let them for now, yeah? We’ll tell them in our own time. _

** Yeah. Okay.  **

_ Brilliant. I’ll ask dad for a portkey tomorrow. I’ll bet we could get one a bit under the radar. Then the press won’t know we’ve left. Then we can leave at the end of the week. That way we can still attend... the rest of the funerals you know? _

** Right. **

...

_But Merlins tits. I’ve never been on holiday before. Not since that trip to Egypt and I was still a little loopy from the Chamber business. Oh fuck. I just thought... I’ll have to get quite a bit of gold together. I have savings._

** Gin. Stop. Please. Don’t even finish that thought.I’ve got it. Really. I know you’re going to fuss but just don’t. Sirius left me quite a lot and... just let me... i dunno... spoil you a bit, yeah? **

_... gods... okay. _

**This is amazing Ginny. I’m actually a little bit excited. Like I don’t know what we’ll get up to but I’m excited that it’s with you.**

_ Don’t mention it. Though I can’t promise I won’t be looking at American boys myself you know. _

** Oh. Right. **

_ Harry..._

**I was really jealous when you went out with Dean you know. I thought that you saying that would make me feel jealous but it didn’t. I’m waiting for it to hit me.**

_ I think maybe we should have a good long talk about all of these things when we get back. For now, we’ll just be honest with each other in the moment yeah? _

** Yeah okay. Brilliant. Yeah **

_ Harry. _

** Ginny. **

_ We’re really going to go on holiday. _

**I know!**

_ And what happens on holiday stays on holiday right? I just mean I won’t judge you for anything that happens. The point of this trip is for us to be ourselves and to relax in an a place that isn’t here. Gay or not gay or something else entirely. I love you to bits no matter what.  _

** Okay right. Yeah. Same. I mean all of that to you too. I can do that. **

_ Harry? _

** Yeah? **

_ I know this is your ‘Find yourself and dance with boys’ holiday... _

** Wait I have to dance? **

_ Don’t worry about that. I’m just giddy excited to be doing this with you. I’m exited to go with you... I’m happy not to be left behind. _

** Would it be okay if I held your hand? **

_ Yeah Harry. We’re laying in my bedroom floor planning a Big Gay New York post-war Holiday. You can definitely hold my hand. _

** Oh my god Ginny. **

_ Oh that’s funny yeah? _

** Really it is. **

...

** I’m sorry I left you behind... **

_ Don’t. Don’t you start apologising to me. I had a job to do too ya know. Neville and I worked really hard to keep those kids safe last year. The Carrows... look you saved us all. You did it. It’s over. It’s really over. I don’t feel like you left me behind before. When you first asked me to talk earlier though... I thought you’d leave me behind then. I thought you’d bring me up here and say you were leaving. _

** Oh. I’m - **

_ Don’t. Apologize. To. Me. Or I will hex you. _

** Okay Gin. **

...

** Happy Big Gay New York post-war Holiday Gin.  **

_ We should come up with a snappier and less conspicuous name. You know. For polite company. _

** We should definitely work on that.  **

**_ *xxx* _ **

** We should probably have that talk now. About everything. About feelings and such.  **

_ Now? Let’s unpack first. You think I can talk my mum into letting you sleep in my room? _

** Pretty sure she still thinks we’re together Gin. **

_ Well come help me unpack anyways. I’m sure I packed all the souvenirs in my bags and then we can give them out after lunch. _

** Well not all of the souvenirs. I have the really fun ones in my bag. But yeah. That sounds good to me. **

_ We can chat while we sort, yeah? _

** Sure. **

_ Close that door Harry.  _

...

**Silencio.**

_So. You’re the gayest man I’ve ever met and we really just didn’t notice._

** It seems really stupid now if I’m honest. **

_ Don’t say that. I think we just didn’t have any frame of reference you know? _

** We? **

_ Well yeah.  _ _ Maybe it was the fact that we were together before. Before the war. Before the Less Conspicuous Trip. Before the whole eye opening bar night. Or maybe it was just the adjoining rooms with terribly thin walls but I feel like we went through this all together. _

** God, those rooms were not great. **

_ I mean, the rooms were wonderful. The room service was glorious. I think it was the fact that we kept forgetting to cast silencing charms until AFTER we brought our respective muggles back with us. I don’t fancy having MACUSA show up while I’m in my knickers because I drunkenly cast a silencio. _

** Well, either way, I’m glad we did it together. I mean maybe I could have used a little less “together” than hearing you with The Italian One. God, he was horrendous. **

_ We said we were never talking about him again. Besides, my Italian One wasn’t any worse than you’re Texan Bloke. _

** God that accent though, right? Like a cowboy... **

_ Merlins saggy tits you’re so gay. How did we... how did YOU miss it? _

**I’ve been thinking about that actually. I mean, I’m definitely gay. I’m pretty far over on that side of the spectrum, if you will... But I think I could love anybody. I waited a long time to be able to love anyone and that just made it harder to sparse out.**

_ You lost me a bit... _

** I really don’t like talking about it. The time before Hogwarts. But I think maybe I should. At least a little bit. You know? **

_ I definitely think that time affected you more than we might realise, yes. _

** Well, I thought about it. I spent all that time with the College Lad that last week and he and I talked about it a little. He reckons I went so long without any love at all that sex just wasn’t on my mind. Not like other teenage boys ya know? I mean, don’t get wrong, it was there but so was all the terror and visions from the mind of a deranged psychopath. Not that College Lad knew that. He said we have a pyramid of needs? Or something like that. And that because I hadn’t had some pretty basic ones fulfilled, that it’s only natural that I would look for those before I could move on to the more complex bits of relationships. **

_ Well what were the basic ones? _

** He said they were like steps in a pyramid. You can’t have the top without a good base right? So the first one was things like food and sleep and clothing. If you’re hungry or cold, then everything else doesn’t really matter. Then just feeling safe is the next step. A place to live. Being healthy. An education maybe? Then the next one is love and friendship which is self explanatory. Then you get to the Actual Human bits. I don’t think that’s what he called them. But it’s the top of the pyramid so I’m sure it’s all very well rounded and self actualised.  **

_ I won’t lie, I wasn’t expecting you to actually come out with it. You’re usually a lot more... reserved with the details about all that Dursley mess and all your feelings. _

** Well you and I Gin. We’ve gotten quite close haven’t we? I mean. We went on our Less Conspicuous trip together. We survived a war together. We’ve heard each other have sex with other men. **

_ Okay really we can just never discuss that again. It was really dreadful and I really didn’t want you to hear all that. _

** Hey. We figured it out. I mean it took us that first week but— **

_ Do you think less of me? _

** What? **

_ Well in all that time you only ever brought back Texan Bloke and College Lad. You don’t think less of me because I brought back... more.  _

** Gin. I think you had just as much as I did to figure out. I think maybe I was figuring out what I liked and you were figuring out what you didn’t. You had the harder job if I’m honest. You know I really thought I’d be jealous. Is it awful that I wasn’t? **

_ It hurt a little bit. I was expecting it too. But then after the initial sting, it was actually really nice. I got to just be myself totally and completely. _

** I noticed. It made me really happy for you. **

...

_ Harry? _

** Yeah Gin? **

_ I think I might be a little gay as well. _

** Yeah. I wondered. College Lad had a bit to say about the spectrum of it all. He had a lot to say about a lot of things actually. I was sort of glad to be shot of him towards the end. Do you want to hear it though? **

_ Yeah.  _

** Well he said that there are all these spectrums we all fall on. Gender, Sexuality, and Romance. All of them slide back and forth and it’s what makes figuring everything out so hard. Sometimes they can work together and fit together quite nicely but sometimes they can be all over the place.  **

_ That makes sense... _

**Yeah. I thought so too. There are all kinds of terms for everything. I think you’re like me in that your a bit all encompassing right? He called that Pan. Pan-romantic he called me. Because I can love anyone even if I’m homosexual. I think you’d be a bit more pan-sexual. It’s the gender and the romance bit that I think has you in a snag.**

_ Gender? I’m a woman. _

** Yeah. Of course Gin. I don’t mean you’re not. I just think you don’t fall on the super feminine side of the spectrum is all nor the super masculine. Like your feminine but you’re mostly more masculine in the things you like to wear. It’s about what makes you feel most like yourself. You’re also just a bit of a top. **

_ A top, eh?  _

** Yeah. Like, in a relationship. One person is sometimes a bit more assertive or dominant than the other. Which can be good. It creates balance. The assertive partner is the Top and the supportive partner is the Bottom.  **

_ Oh god I thought that was a sex thing. _

** It is definitely also a sex thing. In sex the bottom is the one that—  **

_ Yeah I got that.  _

** Anyways. I think maybe you need to look at what fulfils you most mentally and emotionally and then label that if you think you need to. A lot of what College Lad spouted made him seem really full of himself but I think he hit the nail of the head when he said pick a label that fits you instead of forcing yourself to fit into one label.  **

_ I think you might be right. God how long did you spend in the library with College Lad? _

** Not a lot if I’m honest. He was just really chatty after... ya know. He gave me this code to get into the library near his dorm room though and I mostly snuck off on my own. They had a whole section on human psychology and sexuality. I have a list in my bag somewhere of books I want to find in Muggle London sometime. **

_ Oh my. Well Hermione would be proud.  _

** Well for future reference, I’ll never judge you Gin. **

_ Thanks Harry. I love you to bits, you know that?  _

** Love you to bits as well.  **

_** *xxx* ** _

_ Alright. We have to be quick. Mum will go mad if we’re not downstairs to greet Charlie but there’s clearly something bothering the both of us so we’ll just get it out yeah? _

** Okay... the hall closet though? We needed to have this conversation in a closet? Bit on the nose don’t you think?  **

_ Oh piss off. I thought someone was coming and I didn’t want to be interrupted. Well go on! Off with your head yeah?  _

** That’s not what that means. In the book Alice is caught by the queen... but... nah never mind it works. I think I need to tell Ron and Hermione. I feel like I’m lying to them. But I don’t want to share anything that makes you feel exposed. We’ve become such a ‘we’ in such a weird way and I’m having a hard time working out how I’ll tell them without involving you. **

_Well we’ll just tell them together and we’ll make it clear some things are private. We’ll have lunch tomorrow and plan out what we’ll say. I told you I would help you come out in your own time and I meant it. I’m happy to do it._

**Wow. Okay. Brilliant. Okay. Thank you... Okay, your turn. Off with your head.**

_I think I need to move out of the Burrow. I need space from all this grief. Mum is overly cheerful. She keeps coming up with new hobbies. And George is growing his hair out so he doesn’t see Fred in the mirror._

**Gods. That’s... woah.**

_Yeah. It’s so heavy here sometimes. I’m going to go to back Hogwarts when the reconstruction is finished but I don’t think I can wait that long._

**Then come to live in Grimmauld Place with me. I’m really making some progress on it. I finally got all the old wall paper down and painted. I have plenty of room. I’d love it actually. Come live with me. I won’t take no for an answer.**

...

**Gin. I can’t see you in this damn closet. Are you alright?**

_I’m good Harry. I’d love to live with you. Love you right to bits._

** Right to bits, yeah. **

_ Let’s get out of this closet.  _

*xxx*

**Oh gods.**

_ I’m not bothered for what it’s worth. He was smouldering wasn’t he?  _

** I don’t... let’s just paint. Which room did you want again? **

_ Second floor. Right side.  _

** Okay. Brill. **

**... **

_ It’s kind of a relief thought isn’t it?  _

** Hm?  **

_ Well, my brother comes home. You nearly have a fit you’re so smitten with his bloke. _

** I didn’t nearly have a fit. I shouldn’t have said anything. Gods! And besides I don’t think smitten is the right word. I had an erection at your mums dinner table Ginny.  **

_ Well, that hunk of... I mean gods, that man Charlie brought was a damn Adonis. “Oh this is Sergei, he’s my boyfriend.” _

** Your point Gin? **

_ I mean, it just takes a bit of pressure off doesn’t it? Now that Charlies come home and come out we know exactly how everyone else will react when we tell them about your gayness. No rush or anything but that’s got to be nice. _

** That is true I suppose.  **

**... **

** Merlins tits that man was hot. That’s never happened to me before. I couldn’t leave the table or everyone would have seen my... sorry. I still can’t tell if this is weird to talk about with you. **

_ I think if we hadn’t take that Less Conspicuous Trip, I would have been bothered but I don’t know. You sort of shifted into... not brotherly territory because GROSS. But just—  _

** Do you believe in soul mates?  **

_ I dunno sort of. Oh gods do you think Sergei is your soul mate?  _

** No! No. I don’t think... I think you’re my soulmate Gin. **

_ Harry... _

**No. No. Just hear me out. I don’t think we just get one. I think we get several. And I don’t think it’s just a lover or however you want to put it. I think sometimes you’re just meant to find certain people. I think that there are just some people we’re never meant to be without. And that’s you. To me at least.**

...

** Gin? **

...

** Gin. **

...

** OH GOD WHY ARE YOU TACKLING ME? You spilled the paint Gin. **

...

**Ginny, don’t cry. Please? Are you alright?**

_ I like that. Soul mates. I love you to bits you great sod. _

** Right to bits, yeah.  **

*xxx*


End file.
